Nuclear Power Not The Solution For China Says Official

The control room of a Chinese nuclear power station.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) April 23, 2007
Nuclear power is not the long-term answer to China's energy needs due to limited global uranium supplies and problems with nuclear waste disposal, state media on Monday quoted a top official as saying.

"Nuclear power cannot save us because the world's supply of uranium and other radioactive minerals needed to generate nuclear power are very limited," Chen Mingde, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in comments quoted by the China Daily newspaper.

State media reported last week that China intended to set up a strategic uranium reserve amid plans to build as many as three new nuclear power plants annually over the next 10 years.

But Chen called the expansion of China's nuclear power capacity a "transitional replacement" of the country's heavy reliance on coal and oil.

He said the future for China lies in more efficient use of such fossil fuels and expanded consumption of renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydro-power.

Chen spoke during the international Boao Forum for Asia conference on the southern China island of Hainan at which he said the country aimed to boost its oil reserves to the equivalent of 30 days worth of imports, the paper said.

China is keen to diversify its energy sources amid high oil prices and the environmental costs of coal-burning, which supplies around 70 percent of the country's power needs.

But Chen said nuclear waste disposal in heavily populated China remained another check on nuclear power's growth.

China's nuclear power capacity is seen growing to 40 million kilowatts in 2020 from the current less than 10 million.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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